Chapter 818 Decision

Holding the sword in his hand, although its forging process and performance are far inferior to the previous two, it is a suitable choice as a weapon equipped for soldiers and needs to be mass-produced.

Li Gan saw this and added another sentence at the right time.

"In terms of toughness, it has indeed decreased, but as long as it is enchanted, it will not be much worse than the original crystal iron sword in terms of toughness, and it will be harder and sharper."

As the director of the ordnance forging department in Xianyang City, he has undoubtedly studied enchantment, a means closely related to the strength of ordnance.

"Basic weapon blessing" can improve the toughness and sharpness of weapons.

At the same time, he also studied how big the difference is between a crystal iron sword with and without enchantment effects.

So he has a basic idea of ​​the improvement here.

At present, upgrading all existing crystal iron weapons to this version with diamond added is more beneficial than harmful.

As for higher-specification weapons, they can continue to use patterned steel forged from crystal iron for forging.

"Can ordinary craftsmen in the forging department forge this version with diamond added?"

Li Gan had undoubtedly confirmed this question a long time ago.

"After adding diamond, the probability of fracture increases due to the change in the properties of the metal, so the forging difficulty is slightly higher than the previous crystal iron weapons, but as long as you practice more, you can basically forge it. At present, there is already a group of craftsmen in the department who can complete the forging relatively stably, and the efficiency will not be much slower than before."

Zhou Xu nodded with satisfaction after getting this answer.

"Then use this to replace the existing crystal iron weapons to arm the elite troops. In addition, how is the forging of steel weapons for ordinary soldiers?"

"From the establishment of the project to now, two batches have been sent out successively, and the third batch should be completed before the end of the month."

"You should speed up the completion of this third batch of steel weapons. I will send someone to pick it up at that time. I will send someone to notify the Military and Political Department. Don't worry."

According to his earlier order, the steel weapons forged by the Ordnance Forging Department are given priority to the border defense forces here.

The specific implementation will be handled by the Military and Political Department.

But the situation is different now. A war broke out in the southern border. In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the garrison troops in the southern border, the upgrade of equipment will be given priority to them.

After simply arranging these things, Zhou Xu rewarded the research and development team headed by Li Gan with 3,000 silver coins as a reward, and then let Li Gan take the reward and leave.

Then, Zhou Xu, who seemed to have remembered something, hurried back to the Qinzheng Hall and wrote a letter to Shi Lei, who was in charge of Anling City, asking him to keep an eye on the actions of the strange force on the opposite side.

Under normal circumstances, it is unlikely that a force will suddenly move troops against the surrounding forces in winter. Even if it wants to move troops, it will wait until the beginning of spring next year.

Now that winter is coming to an end and it is not far from the beginning of spring, the war with the rats has already broken out in the southern border.

Zhou Xu obviously wants to avoid the situation of fighting on two fronts as much as possible.

However, according to the latest situation, it seems unrealistic to quickly get rid of this batch of new rats in a short time.

From the latest report sent by Soros, it is not difficult to see that the scale of the rat army this time should not be underestimated.

And in the subsequent analysis, Soros also proposed that the rats have never been a race that can be wiped out in one go.

The reason why they were able to wipe out the Claw Clan was because a war at that time caught the other party off guard.

From the perspective of the Claw Clan at that time, they did not know the existence of the Great Zhou at all, and thought that their only enemy was the Lizardmen.

And they were here to complete the annual regular project.

From this step on, their thinking and judgment had gone wrong.

That's why they suffered a blood loss in the subsequent battles. The main force suffered heavy losses and was seriously injured, which gave them the opportunity to wipe out the other party.

But this time the rats were different. In the simple fight, Soros had already vaguely felt that the opponent's strength was probably above the original Claw Clan.

And the opponent was also very vigilant. Soros wanted to take some action several times, but the opponent immediately blocked him with the advantage of the number of rats.

It is not realistic to destroy the other party like the Claw Clan was destroyed.

Unless their Great Zhou concentrates the national forces in the southern border.

But this is undoubtedly an unrealistic idea.

Now their Great Zhou has such a large territory, and they need a sufficient number of garrisons to garrison.

Not to mention that there are other potential enemies around.

It will take at least half a year for a large army to come and go, and this does not include the time to deal with the rats.

By then, I am afraid that my hometown will be raided.

Therefore, from Soros's point of view, the war between them and the rats in the southern border will most likely enter a normalized mode again.

Soros has no idea about this.

After all, they, the Lizardmen, have been through this for so many years.

Treating the war with the rats as part of daily work is actually just like that.

To be honest, it also gives their soldiers in the southern border an opportunity to accumulate practical experience.

However, in contrast, the expenditure on military expenses and even related materials must increase.

From the perspective of a ruler, this is obviously not what Zhou Xu wants to see.

With his fingertips tapping on the desk, Zhou Xu looked at the document spread out in front of him, and after thinking for a while, he made a decision.

"Send a message that I will form a 500-man guard army, and the candidates will be selected from various troops, and then recruit 2,000 soldiers nationwide on the grounds of increasing troop reserves and replenishing the troops of various border guards."

It has not been two years since the end of the last war, and Zhou Xu obviously does not want the news of the war to cause panic among the people.

So he found a suitable candidate from various troops to form a guard army, and then made such an arrangement on the grounds of increasing troop reserves and replenishing troops.

However, since it is just a normal increase in troop reserves, it is impossible to recruit too many at once, so even a fool can see that there is a problem.

Zhou Xu thought for a while and felt that 2,000 was a more appropriate number.

Take the current situation in the southern border as an example. The increase of 2,000 troops is enough to affect the situation to a certain extent.

In addition, he naturally had his own considerations for forming the Imperial Guard.

Ever since he entered Xianyang City, the task of guarding Xianyang City has been handed over to Xianying Camp.

But on the contrary, once Xianying Camp left, there would be no garrison troops of sufficient size in Xianyang City, and the few people in his personal guards would not be enough.

In this way, in order to liberate Xianying Camp, the formation of the Imperial Guard has become a top priority.

And now, everything Zhou Xu is doing, needless to say, is to prepare for the eradication of the rats in the southern border!

In the case of a just cause and the ability to directly mobilize troops, Zhou Xu would rather invest in a wave and eliminate the trouble in the shortest time than to bear the long-term consumption!